Customer Reviews

Fast-Talking Dames

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Maria DiBattista, in Fast-Talking Dames, looks at the women (Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Myrna Loy, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, and, even, Great Garbo) who helped create a new woman, a dame as it were, in screen comedy in the late thirties until the mid-forties. This woman relied on her voice for her wit and her power and the author does a very good job of looking at the effect and originality of this voice in the beginning of the book. The text can veer into over-analyzing at times, particulary in the chapters devoted to just one movie, but that is part of the charm of a film studies book. It will make one look a little longer and lot more carefully at these comic screen gems in the future. Anyone interested in screwball comedy will enjoy this book whether they agree with all the conclusions or not. The text may get a little bogged with a heavy scholar's hand but the material being studied always helps the lighten the load. An interesting addition to film studies books.

Maria Di Battista's look at the lively and complex women of '30s comedy is ultimately disappointing. While chapters on individual films are often interesting, the book contains too much repetition (the first few chapters seem to consist of di Battista pointing out--over and over--that these dames did indeed talk fast), and Di Battista's argument suffers from her failure to provide much of a historical context. Worth a look if you have a strong interest in the field; if you're just beginning to read about it, try Elizabeth Kendall's *The Runaway Bride* (which provides a context for actresses, movies, and genre), James Harvey's *Romantic Comedy from Lubitsch to Sturges* (not as analytical as it might be, but positively majestic in scope), and Stanley Cavell's *Pursuits of Happiness* (aimed at academic readers).

This book discusses the role of women in film, particularly those women from the earlier years of film that were fast-talking and smart. This is a great record of how film tried to sneak intelligent women into their movies, even though society at the time dictated that women should be docile and silent.

A great analysis of women and their roles in United States history.

I was hoping for an enjoyable read on a favorite subject, but what I got was a full-blown dissertation by a university professor. For me, this book loses interest because its author is always on the hunt for sexual meanings to aid our understanding, obviously a child of our current epoch. But I am such a child too, and her continual sleuthing, mining and harping becomes tedious to the point where one squirms. For me, putting ideas into the minds of long-dead movie directors is somewhat akin to positing as to the mind of God. My own nose may not be as pert as Irene Dunne's, but it definitely wrinkled during my reading of this book, the denser more 'Freudian' parts of which I admittedly scanned or skipped altogether. Sighing 'Here we go again' as the author unearths yet another instance of her conviction that sex is the absolute core center of existence, I chafed: Is it? Can't a bone be just a bone, a purse just a purse? No, DiBattista is indefatigable in her assertions that in these grand old films, all is innuendo. A subject dear to my heart and an intriguing project for a writer who loves film history, but this reader emerged from the experience, well... a little fatigued.

You can tell this was written by a professor who likes to hear herself talk. It was too long and too boring. Only got through 100 pages before I gave up.

I love screwball comedies! I have seen all of the movies dissected in this book, and love them all. I was looking forward to an interesting informative book about these great films. Instead, I got long dissertations on what the directors were thinking while they made these films. Being less than comfortable with the concept of the director as the true author of a film(after all, they did use screenwriters, often bringing in others, or even a team, to "punch-up" the script)it seems foolhardy to subscribe all the "Emersonian", "Darwinian", etc., themes to these films. When all is said and done, they are fast funny films, made to bring in the public and give them a good witty evening. This they accomplish with great gusto. For the most part, this book just made me tired. If you want to learn anything new about the films, watch them.

Fast Talking Dames is a survey of the best screwball dames of the 30s and 40s. Within these pages the professor gives brainy reviews of films such as "Bringing Up Baby", "Ninotchka" "The Awful Truth" "His Girl Friday", "My Man Friday" and other gems from the great era of nonstop verbal comedic brilliance which gave birth to those delightful dames named Garbo and Colbert, Harlow and Hepburn, Jean Arthur and Myrna Loy (to name only a few of those whose films are reviewed."
The style is pedantic and calls upon the reader to have a familiarity with the films which are reviewed. Sometimes I felt the author was "stretching" to make a profound statement about
madcap movie making at its finest.
It would have been helpful to have plot summaries of the movies
reviewed. It is easy for the reader to get "lost" exploring symbols in the films. Unless you have seen the movies prior to reading the book you might be in trouble.
The style was dry and academic though she does have good insights (at times) to share with those of us benighted souls who don't teach in the elysian fields of academia. This is a so-so book which could have been much better!